I'm trying to join my Parallels Virtual Machine to an Exchange server in my office and I'm getting the following error in the Windows network wizzard: "A domain controller for the domain name <DOMAIN NAME> could not be contacted" I hear that a lot of people are using Outlook with Exchange on Parallels. Does anyone have any advice about getting past this error? Thank you in advance.
Well, Exchange has nothing to do with that. Your vm is unable to reach the domain controller that is presumably in the same domain as your Exchange box. I would start with ensuring that you are getting the proper DHCP address from your DHCP server, and also find out what your domain controller is called and its IP and be sure you can reach it via ping, and so on. D
Most likely you need to be using bridged networking and it's quite possible that your VM needs to be added to your Windows Domain, which will require some help from your IT Administrator.
try using the dns domain name rather than the NetBios one and make sure your DNS server is set to the correct DNS server for the domain you are trying to join.
thank you for your suggestions I am able to ping the domain controller (which happens to be the same server that Exchange is on). I tried entering the IP address as the domain to join, but I still get the same error. Any more ideas? Thank you.
Sounds like there is a policy on your network which requires you machine (in this case VM) to be a member of the domain. If that's the case, you will need system administrator to add your VM to the network.
No need to register my VM on my domain Thank you for your idea, but there is no such policy that a machine needs to be registered in order to be used on the domain. I have registered many Wintel machines without any problems. This seems to be something specific to Parallels. Thank you.
so again, i suggest the dns idea.. i have to do this when working in shared mode.My DC resides on a different subnet to the mac/parallels, as such, i have to set the dns server of the Win VM to the dns server for the Win domain I'm joining (usually the DC anyway) and then use the dns domain name when joining.. ie in stead of joining the domain EXAMPLE i would join its DNS name EXAMPLE.COM Works fine every time
Can't ping server name but can ping IP address I did confirm that I am unable to ping the name of the server, but I am able to ping the IP address. I don't understand what Darkone is suggesting, but it sounds promising. Could you provide me some more detail? Thank you.
firstly, you have to have your DNS server set to the DNS server for the Windows domain you are trying to connect to. Next, you need to know the DNS name of the domain you are trying to contact. On your XP client, use this as the domain name to connect to. This webpage ; http://www.petri.co.il/joining_a_domain_in_windows_xp_pro.htm does a good job of explaining it. Read the section "To join a Domain or Workgroup" and look a tthe pictures. They use the dns domain name.
Bridged networking might help too... What kind of networking are you using? I guess you might be able to get it to work with Shared networking, but I always find it easier when you just have the VM running Bridged.
